Sunday, June 03, 2012

Reuters Interviews President Ma: Human rights gone astray?

Asked about blind activist Chen Guangcheng, whom China recently allowed to travel to the United States to study after a diplomatic row between Beijing and Washington, Ma said Taiwan was concerned about rights in China, particularly in light of there being a million people from Taiwan on the mainland.

"We hope the mainland can face some of the issues that have happened in the past and can treat dissidents well. We are looking at this from the point of view of kindness, not based on Western human rights values, but traditional Chinese values."

Note that in the transcript currently online, there is no mention of "human rights" here. Hence interpretation of the President's meaning is complicated by the issue of what he actually said. The text in Chinese simply says "...but what we are basing this on is not western values, but traditional Chinese values." Has "human rights" been dropped from the transcript? Such editing of transcripts is hardly abnormal.

Since the questions here were probably scripted -- indeed during Ma's first term there was much 'criticism' of the President's speaking to reporters in English, which appeared to actually be support for a move to exert greater control over the questions that reporters ask.

Judging from the other comments made in that paragraph, it looks like Ma is searching for common ground with China, as he always does. This probably should not be read as something anti-western so much as it is his normal pro-China boilerplate about "reducing differences" between the two sides and appealing to shared Confucian values. These are favorite themes, the locals just shrug them off.

There is plenty of stuff on economics, which is Reuter's primary focus, after all. The report notes that Ma is attempting to get FTAs with other trading states. Very curious to see whether Beijing will let that occur. Ma also mentioned the talks with the US, which got hung up on the beef issue. Also very curious to see whether both sides are genuinely interested, or are merely playing the same kind of game as Taipei and Washington have been playing with the F-16 purchase._______________________[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums! Delenda est, baby.

8 comments:

That Ma, a Chinese exile, would stress a commonality of values with his motherland is expectable, laudable even.

The weirdness lies rather in the incongruity of that man pretending to speak as the elected head of state of Taiwan.

For the last sixty-seven years Taiwan has remained a territory of Japan under undisrupted American occupation. Taiwanese are the last and forgoten hold-outs of the Pacific war. Ma represents the exiled Chinese rebel faction the US foisted on the occupied.

That is disgusting. I really hate how Ma always just pushes the whole "Chinese culture" aspect down the throat of the Taiwanese. I remember on his inauguration speech, he said the Taiwanese people displayed values such as "kindness" and "humbleness" that truly represent the authentic CHINESE CULTURE....So the American or the Japanese don't preach that? The Formosans don't help others? The old uneducated ladies in the country side wouldn't be kind and humble to others? Just gross.

Yep...that is the traditional KMT or Chinese way of saying things. Any good and fundamental virtues are emphasized as Chinese vertues. You can find that tune in all the older education material in Taiwan. (I am not sure about the current material. But given the background of the new Minister of Culture, I won't be surprised if they turn more toward the old way once again)

you know, as a Taiwanese American, I find the whole anti-Chinese backlash kind of comical ... When Taiwanese and other Asian or other immigrants come to the US, we are encouraged to think of ourselves as part of the White American cultural mainstream. My Floridian cousin-in-law TELLS me, "You're AMERICAN, okay??? You're JUST as American as Chinese." Her husband, my cousin, wonders why I refer to myself as Taiwanese, and points to the longer history of Chinese cultural predominance. Now, as a Taiwanese citizen, I am asked to omit my family's cultural heritage from China, from other Taiwanese? This is bonkers. Also, as a former human rights researcher, I don't think it is prima facie objectionable to promote confucian or other forms of "humanism" not invented by European white men.

@kid.wh(y)"When Taiwanese and other Asian or other immigrants come to the US, we are encouraged to think of ourselves as part of the White American cultural mainstream. My Floridian cousin-in-law TELLS me, "You're AMERICAN, okay???"

Really? Your cousin told you to think of yourself as part of the "White" American cultural mainstream? In my experience it is usually the people who DON'T want you thinking of yourself as an American first who will try to make it a racial thing by mistakenly applying the label "White", "Anglo" or other such nonsense.

I used to be in the camp of thinking all Americans, immigrants or no, should think of themselves as just "American". However with age I understand now that you really can't forget your home country. If you spend the first 12 years of your life somewhere before moving to the US, it is too much to ask that you forget everything about your first homeland or that you disavow all affection for it.

However for children and grandchildren of immigrants to America it is important that we realize that our homeland is the America. Whatever our ancestors may have been, WE are Americans. To say that the culture we grow up in is less important than the race of our ancestors is a form of racism that we should reject.

HOT! HOT! HOT!

COMMENTS: May take a while. Google screwed up the old Comments functions in its most recent "upgrade" which really hurt the functionality and usability of Blogger, another trademark Google upgrade that made problems worse while adding more clicks to get anything done.

Photos on this blog are hosted by Flickr. I used to enthusiastically recommend Flickr but the new site changes have grievously impaired its usefulness. My current recommendation: find another photo host. My photos at Flickr. Just click on any photo to be taken to its Flickr page to view it in larger size.